Heart-pump Patients: Doing Well While Waiting

October 27, 1985|By United Press International

PITTSBURGH — Doctors were ''very encouraged'' Saturday at the progress of artificial- heart patient Thomas Gaidosh, while across the state Anthony Mandia said in Hershey that he would like to wait for his human heart at home.

Both men are awaiting human hearts to replace the mechanical devices beating in their chests.

Doctors at Presbyterian-University Hospital in Pittsburgh said the progress Gaidosh was making was ''a beautiful example of the marriage between the Jarvik 7 artificial heart and the patient's own physiology.''

''We are very encouraged by his progress,'' said a statement by the surgical team of 14 members, headed by Dr. Bartley Griffith.

Gaidosh, 47, of Sutersville, Pa., spent an ''uneventful night'' and was in critical condition, which is normal after such surgery, a spokesman said.

Mandia, ''clearly anxious'' for a natural replacement of his artificial heart, jokingly asked his doctors if he could go home and wait there for a transplant, said a spokesman for Hershey Medical Center in Hershey.

Mandia, 44, of Philadelphia, spent most of Saturday morning sitting in a chair. He also requested -- but didn't receive -- a room with a view.

''His spirits are quite high,'' said Dr. John Burnside, vice president of the Pennsylvania State University teaching hospital. ''He's clearly anxious to get on with it.''

Burnside said there is ''no sense of urgency'' to find a donor human heart. Gaidosh responded to verbal commands and his blood pressure was normal. He communicated with hospital personnel and relatives by nodding his head or squeezing a hand.

The Jarvik 7 was implanted in Gaidosh Thursday night in a six-hour operation to keep him alive until a human donor can be found.

Gaidosh suffered from idiopathic cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease of unknown origin. He had been a heart transplant candidate for a month and was on acute status for 2 1/2 weeks. His condition deteriorated Thursday to the point where cardiac replacement was necessary to prevent death, doctors said.